Longitudinal Study of Metabolic Biomarkers among Conventional and Organic Farmers in Thailand

Pornpimol Kongtip, Noppanun Nankongnab, Nichcha Kallayanatham, Ritthirong Pundee, Jutharak Yimsabai and Susan Woskie
Additional contact information
Pornpimol Kongtip: Department of Occupational Health and Safety, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, 420/1 Rajvidhi Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Noppanun Nankongnab: Department of Occupational Health and Safety, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, 420/1 Rajvidhi Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Nichcha Kallayanatham: Department of Occupational Health and Safety, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, 420/1 Rajvidhi Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Ritthirong Pundee: Mahidol University, Nakhonsawan Campus, Nakhonsawan 60130, Thailand
Jutharak Yimsabai: Department of Medical Technology and Clinical Pathology, Buddhachinaraj Phitsanulok, 90 Sithamma traipidok Road, Muang, Phitsanulok 65000, Thailand
Susan Woskie: Department of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave, Lowell, MA 01854-2867, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: The aim of this longitudinal study is to assess how pesticide use may impact metabolic biomarkers by collecting and comparing data from conventional ( n = 13) and organic farmers ( n = 225) every eight months for four rounds. Farmers were interviewed about family health history, food consumption behaviors, self-reported health problems, agricultural activities, and history of pesticide use. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Blood samples were collected for total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), blood glucose, and triglycerides. A linear mixed model with random intercepts for subjects was used to compare the metabolic biomarkers between conventional and organic farmers and to examine the impact of the number of pesticide spray days for all four rounds after controlling for covariates. The conventional farmers reported using insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The marginal means for chemical farmers were significantly higher than organic farmers for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference. Increasing the number of days of spraying either insecticides or fungicides was associated with an increase in HDL, LDL, and cholesterol levels. Increasing the number of herbicide spray days was associated with an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a decrease in BMI. These findings suggest that pesticide-using conventional farmers may be at higher risk of metabolic disease in the future.

Keywords: longitudinal study; cardiovascular and metabolic biomarkers; conventional farmers; organic farmers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4178/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4178/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:4178-:d:370344

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().